Excellence Medal Awarded to Israeli Scientist: This Week in Space

A Continuing Tradition of Excellence

Dr. Eliad Peretz, an Israeli researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will receive another excellence medal this year for his work. Peretz, who leads several research projects at the agency, has been informed that he will be awarded NASA’s Exceptional Technological Achievement Medal in 2024. In addition, the ORCAS-KECK-LCRD project team, which he heads, will receive a Group Achievement Medal. This project allows ground-based telescopes to be calibrated using a laser signal sent from a satellite, thereby compensating for atmospheric distortions and producing much sharper images.

Among the other projects Peretz leads are: the development of a laser radar (LiDAR) for spacecraft intended to land on the Moon, as well as for the Dragonfly mission, which aims to land on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon; the launch of small satellites into a unique geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to study the Van Allen belts—regions shaped by Earth’s magnetic field that shield the us from deep-space radiation; and the development of an ultraviolet telescope designed to study the activity of stars that host planets.

This is the fourth time in the past five years that Peretz has received an excellence medal from NASA. While dozens of employees receive such medals each year, very few—if any—have maintained such a consistent streak. In 2023, he received a medal for Exceptional Engineering Achievement, in 2022 for Outstanding Achievement, and in 2020 the Early Career Achievement Medal, after already receiving two other excellence awards that same year.

This is the fourth time in the past five years that Peretz has received an excellence medal from NASA. While dozens of employees earn such medals each year, very few—if any—have maintained such a consistent streak. In 2023, he was awarded the Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal; in 2022, the Outstanding Achievement Medal; and in 2020, the Early Career Achievement Medal—in addition to two other excellence awards received that same year.

“I am deeply honored to be the recipient of four NASA medals,” Peretz told the Davidson Institute website. “This recognition is not mine alone — I am incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by an extraordinary team, from my loving family to my dedicated colleagues at GSFC, Keck Observatory, and LCRD. Each of them shares in this moment and the work that made it possible. Among these honors, NASA’s Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal and the ORCAS-Keck-LCRD group achievement award hold special significance for me. These efforts represent more than milestones — they mark the emergence of a new class of missions and open the door to groundbreaking scientific exploration.”

The awards were announced during a challenging week for NASA, after the agency revealed that nearly 4,000 of its roughly 18,000 employees are expected to leave as part of a government-wide voluntary separation program. This follows the administration’s intention to cut nearly a quarter of NASA’s budget for fiscal year 2026. According to the announcement, about 800 employees have already expressed their willingness to leave in the first round.

“On a personal note, this is also a time for reflection,” says Peretz. “Pause, breathe, and reconnect. I look forward to some soul-searching, time with family and friends, and preparing for the next chapter of new and familiar adventures.”

A New Crew Brings Israeli Bacteria to the ISS

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched a crew of astronauts (Crew-11) to the International Space Station (ISS) on August 1st. The launch, originally planned for July 31st, was postponed due to a storm in the area around the Florida launch site. This is the 11th crewed mission launched from the United States since SpaceX began flying astronauts for NASA in 2020.

The crew includes two NASA astronauts: Commander Zena Cardman, who embarked on her first spaceflight, and Michael Fincke, 58, a veteran making his fourth trip to the ISS. The other crew members are Kimiya Yui, a Japanese astronaut on his second spaceflight, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, on his first flight beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The crew arrived at the ISS on August 2 and will spend the next six months aboard, replacing the team that has been stationed there since March. The outgoing crew is now on its way back to Earth after several days of handover.

One of the experiments the crew brought to the station is from Sheba Medical Center in Israel, investigating how microgravity conditions in space affect the disease-causing ability and antibiotic resistance of several bacterial species. The experiment, developed by Sheba’s Infectious Diseases Research Lab and Innovation Division, is being conducted in a sealed mobile lab built by the U.S. company Space Tango. The lab is remotely controlled, allowing experimenters to adjust bacterial growth conditions as needed. At the end of the experiment, the bacteria will be frozen and returned to Earth for analysis of molecular changes and gene expression.

The research team, led by Prof. Ohad Gal-Mor of Sheba, is comparing the bacteria’s gene expression in space with that of identical bacteria grown under the same conditions on Earth—ensuring that gravity is the only variable.

An Australian Setback in the Race to Orbit

The Australian space company Gilmour Space Technologies failed in its first attempt to launch an Australian-made rocket from Australian soil into Earth orbit. The Eris rocket is designed to carry small- to medium-sized satellites—up to 215 kilograms—into a sun-synchronous orbit, which passes over the poles and allows a satellite to pass over the same regions at the same solar angle each day.

After months of delays caused by weather and technical issues, the rocket finally launched last Wednesday from the company’s space base near Bowen in northeastern Australia. But the flight was over almost as soon as it began. The 23-meter-tall rocket rose only a few meters off the ground, hovered briefly to the side, crashed near the launch pad, and erupted in flames—only 14 seconds after liftoff.

As is customary in such cases, the company was quick to frame the test as a success. “Getting off the pad and into flight is a huge step forward for any new rocket program,” said CEO Adam Gilmour. “This was the first real test of our rocket systems, our propulsion technology and our spaceport — and it proved that much of what we’ve built works” The company emphasized that there were no injuries or environmental damage. “Data in hand, eyes on TestFlight 2.” it tweeted. No date has yet been announced for the next launch.

Founded a decade ago and now employing about 200 people, Gilmour Space Technologies is also active in the design and manufacture of satellites. Its first satellite, ElaraSat, was launched last month aboard a SpaceX rocket from the United States. ElaraSat is an imaging satellite designed to monitor water quality in reservoirs, but the platform can be adapted for other applications.

Pakistan’s Perspective from Space

Pakistan has added a new  remote sensing satellite to its space assets, built and launched by China. The PRSS-01 satellite was successfully launched from the Xichang Space Center aboard a Kuaizhou A-1 rocket and successfully entered its designated orbit.

According to official statements, the satellite is intended for civilian use, with the primary goal of improving the country’s ability to manage natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes. In routine operations, it is expected to assist in monitoring agricultural conditions, tracking environmental changes, and supporting government authorities in infrastructure management and land development planning.

The new satellite joins several other active Pakistani satellites in orbit, including a large communications satellite—also built and launched by China last year.

AI-Powered Satellite Simulation

The Israeli company Sim.Space provides dynamic simulation services for autonomous systems, including satellites, spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Recently, the company developed an artificial intelligence system that significantly shortens the time needed to create such simulation environments.

Before a satellite, spacecraft, or similar system is physically built, it is tested in a simulation environment—a computer system that models the behavior of each component and evaluates how the complete system performs under different conditions and scenarios. This stage also helps refine the final design and identify the most suitable components. The process then moves to the “hybrid lab,” where real hardware components, such as sensors, batteries and motors, are integrated into the simulation. This enables testing of how the physical components operate and interact with each other and with the overall system.

“Projects like these usually take several years, but thanks to this system, we can now do in a few hours what used to take months,” Assaf Levin, the company’s CEO and owner,  in an interview with the Davidson Institute.  “We combined the best of all worlds: the infrastructure we’ve developed over years—which includes models of every type of component used in space and aviation—with an AI system trained to use that infrastructure to build simulations based on those validated models. The AI doesn’t alter the models—it performs the integration between them.”

According to Levin, the technology could also have defense applications. “Combat arenas are becoming increasingly autonomous and robotic, with systems like unmanned aerial vehicles. The pace of development is staggering—both by our adversaries and by us. The development cycle of such systems currently takes years, and to keep up, we need a paradigm shift. Integrating AI could be that shift, bringing systems to operational readiness in a much shorter period.”